The secretary-general of the financially troubled Namibia Football Association (NFA), Franco Cosmos, has said national team players who are owed money will be paid once the association is in a financial position to pay them.
The football association owes Brave Warriors, Brave Gladiators, girls Under-17 and U-20 players for competing in different international competitions this year.
Speaking during a media conference on Sunday, Cosmos said he does not understand why journalists are making a fuss about the Gladiators not being paid appearance fees.
“I don’t know why we are obsessed with them (Gladiators) not being paid… Brave Warriors played Senegal twice, Congo Brazzaville and then Togo. They are also not paid while the U-20 ladies played two matches against Burundi and the U-17 are in Lesotho for Region 5 games, they are also not paid,” he said.
He added that the Gladiators played five games at the Cosafa Cup and two in the Afcon qualifiers against Tanzania, but due to infighting at the NFA donors have stopped their funding, and they are finding it hard to settle what is owed to those who represented the national teams.
“All the players were told the association has no money and they will be paid once the money is available,” Cosmos said.
The unhappy secretary-general also took a swipe at Zenatha Coleman who plies her trade in Spain for Sevilla Football Club for breaking her silence on the NFA’s failure to settle players’ appearance fees on social media last month.
“Zenatha (Coleman) is out of order and she will be disciplined. She knows if there is an issue there are channels to follow. For that matter she is not the captain of the team anymore, that is why she is salty,” he said.
Cosmos stated that when COVID-19 lockdowns started the football association paid for Coleman’s flight tickets back home, “but she has not gone to social media to announce how her football club failed to come to her rescue”.
Coleman promised to come back to Nampa after her morning training sessions when approached for comment on Monday about the statements by the NFA secretary-general, but did not do so.
Source: Namibia Press Agency